


Christmas With the Newports

by NotARealGeek



Category: Original Work
Genre: A+ Parenting, Angst, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, First work - Freeform, Fluff, Happy Ending, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Original Character(s), Too many characters, Why Is This Family So Big
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 02:05:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5849812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotARealGeek/pseuds/NotARealGeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>OR: How Not to Loose Your Mind</p>
<p>James Fully expected to spend Christmas in the dorms of the boarding school his parents shipped him off to. When Alex and Chris his two best friends, find out he has nowhere to stay they invite him home for the holidays. With mutual pining and a family big enough to take over a small country, what could go wrong?</p>
<p>unbeta'd</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

“James! Dude!”  
A young man raked his hands through his brown hair before looking up from his computer and pushing his glasses more firmly on his nose as a pair of red-headed twins tumbled into his dorm room.  
“Hey Alex, Chris. What’s going on?” He had a slight British accent, and a soft voice.  
“Dude! What are you doing for Christmas? ‘Cause the break’s in, like, two weeks!” Alex seemed barely able to contain his excitement and was bouncing on James' bed. Chris, on the other hand, was merely grinning from ear to ear. James had to stifle a flash of sadness that flared up at the twins’ obvious excitement for the holiday.   
“My family doesn’t celebrate Christmas, so I’ll be staying here over the holidays,” he answered, “but that should be fun, right? Better than a god-knows how long flight back to England. You two are heading home right?”  
Chris looked at him closely as Alex started to answer “Yeah- OW!” Alex rubbed his side where Chris had elbowed him “Dude what- OH! Sorry James, our mum is going to call us pretty soon, so we best go.Sorry for barging in bye!”  
And like that they were gone. James sighed to himself and shook his head, turning back to his computer. Alex always was a whirlwind and Chris was there to hold him back. 

“Mama, we really need to ask you something.”  
“What is it sweetie?"  
“Can we bring James home for the holidays? He doesn’t have anywhere to go and he’s our best friend. Please, Mama?”  
“Do you think he’s up to the rest of the family? Remember that it’s our turn to host the family over Christmas.”  
“Oh Mama, he’ll be fine. I- we’ll protect him from the family. Please?  
Both twins gave their mother puppydog eyes as they waited for her answer. Not missing a trick, she raised her eyebrow at his phrasing.   
“Well . . . how could I say no? Bring your young man home, but expect the teasing from your family.”  
“MOM!” Alex exclaimed, “he’s not my young man!”   
Both Chris and his mom raised their eyebrows at that.


	2. Day 1: Meet the Family

“James. Hey, James.”  
“Go ’way”  
“Come on, man we need to roll out soon. You can sleep in the car, okay?”  
“No.”  
“Alrighty then.”  
There were shuffling sounds followed by the the shutting of a door. James snuggled back into his blankets and fell back to sleep.  
Plop.  
“ARGH!” James shouted as he wrestled with a sopping wet thing on his face before finally pulling it off. A damp hand towel. Someone was going to get it now.   
“Sorry, but we really have to go now.”  
James looked up and saw Chris standing there with his hands in the air as Alex killed himself laughing in the doorway.   
“So you threw a hand towel in my face. A wet hand towel.”  
“Um . . . Yes?”  
“Oooh, wrong answer bro.” Alex said through his laughter, “you’re gonna get it. James looks ‘bout ready to murder.”   
After glaring quickly at Alex, James leaped out of bed and lunged for Chris. Unfortunately, Chris evaded him and dashed out the door into the hall. So James chased him, in nothing but his pajama bottoms. James was gaining, when suddenly he was tackled from the back. He twisted around and found himself pinned under Alex. Honey brown eyes met grey-green as the pair froze for a moment. Words died in Alex’s throat as he stared at his shirtless friend for a long moment  
“Uh”  
Then Alex was pulled off of James by Chris.  
“James, grab your bags and get dressed. We’ll be in the parking lot” Chris offered James a hand and pulled him to his feet before hustling Alex back to their dorm room. James looked after them, turning bright red as he turned to go back to his room.

 

“What were you thinking?” Chris almost shouted at Alex.  
“Did you notice his eyes were honey coloured?”  
Chris gave Alex a look of disgust and shoved one of their bags at him. “Take this down to the car.”   
Alex blushed and headed down to the car.

 

Alex hauled himself out of the passenger side of the car and shivered, stretching muscles stiff after a long car ride. He turned and knocked on the window of the back seat, startling James out of a sound sleep and making him jump a full inch out of his seat.  
“Up and at ‘em, we’ve got an hour ‘till dinner and bags that need to go inside.”  
James groaned, but got out of the car a zipped up his jacket, helping Alex get the bags out of the car. Then he stopped dead and stared at the scene before him.  
“So when you asked if I wanted to come over to your house for Christmas, what you meant was your mansion, right?” James asked, gesturing at the three story edifice before them.  
“Oh.” Alex paused “Um, yeah? It’s cool though” he hurried on, “My moms will make you right at home. Promise! And it’ll be full by pretty quick, with my sisters arriving and everyone else due later. We cool?”  
James couldn’t do anything but nod and pick the bags back up.  
“Well, uh, let’s head in?”  
James nodded again. This was a great day for words with him. His crush had invited him to stay with his family and all he could do was nod dumbly. Great. He followed Alex in through the double doors to an entranceway tiled in marble of a warm brown colour. They both quickly shoved off their coats and hung them in the closet to the side of the doors.   
“Mum! We’re here!” Alex shouted into the huge house.  
“Alexander Douglas Newport, what have I told you about shouting? We installed intercoms for a reason, I’ll have you know.” This came from a tiny little woman with auburn hair going to silver and the same colour eyes as the twins. She opened her arms, “Come here then.”  
Alex dropped the bags he had been carrying and rushed into her arms. “Mama” he sighed, folding his tall frame into her hug for a long moment. “Let me look at you,” his mum said, holding him at arm's length, “you must’ve grown another inch! And look how tired you are! Good thing it’s the holidays or I would have had to come kidnap you for a break. How was the drive? Did the three of you split it or did you leave Chris to do all the driving? I can see that he’s parking the car. Oh, and this must be James” she patted his cheek, “now, I left your mother in the kitchen alone, so you should go make sure she hasn’t set fire to the water again. Take off your shoes, it’s far too snowy out there for brushing them off to do any good. Off you go,” She said shooing back towards where she came from. As he disappeared towards the kitchen she sighed contentedly and murmured “It’s good to have the kids home. It gets lonely without them.” Then she turned to James with a twinkle in her eye, “Now young man, what are you doing standing there? Put those ridiculous bags down. My, you’re thin aren’t you? Don’t worry, I was thin in my youth too, believe it or not. Mind you, that was five kids and seventeen years ago now.”  
James just stood there and let the words wash over him. It was easy to see where Alex got his personality from. Wait. “Did you say that Alex’s mother was in the kitchen?” he asked feeling rather confused.  
“Oh, didn’t the boys tell you? They have two moms and are quite outnumbered by the girls.”  
All of the sudden everything clicked together. “That makes so much more sense now. No, they never told me anything about their family, aside from that they had one.”  
“Isn’t that just like them? They’ve always thought that we were the most normal family ever, even though there’s five of us, and we never could convince them we needed explaining. Now!” She abruptly shifted moods, “why don’t we get you settled in a bit while the boys say hi to their other mother? We finally got around to putting that bed together, so you’ll be the first one to sleep on it.”

 

“Mummy!” Alex exclaimed on entering the kitchen. A strong looking blond woman with piercing blue eyes looked up from her tablet and took off her thin framed black glasses. “Alex, my boy! Come here and give me a hug.” She stood up and embraced him, almost a match for his height. “You’ve gotten taller again, and -”  
The back door opened, and then slammed shut behind Chris.   
“Chris! Come here and give your mother a hug.” The boys both hugged their mother for a long moment, relaxing in the warmth of of the kitchen and the smell of good food. Then Chris let go and turned to put his coat on the hooks by the door.   
“Alex! Chris!” a young sounding voice exclaimed “You’re here!”  
“Katie-cat!” They responded, kneeling down to embrace their littlest sister enthusiastically.  
“Did you know that there’s a strange man upstairs with Momma? She’s showing him to the room across from yours, Alex.”  
“James!” Alex shouted. Chris mock smacked him across the back of his head. Their mother frowned. “You left your young man alone with your mother when he just arrived?” She raised an eyebrow at Alex.  
“No. I mean yes. I mean,” he turned bright red “he’s not my young man!” Now his mother and Chris were both raising their eyebrows at him. Alex felt like banging his head on the bar.  
“Okay then,” his mother said in a questioning tone, “why don’t you go rescue this ‘James’ and send your Mama back down? I think her . . . pasta dish . . . is almost ready.”

 

After gathering up his bags, James found himself swept up in the wake of this rather astonishing woman, who didn’t seem to mind his silence and steamrolled right over all his protests. They took the elevator up to the third floor and in short order James found he was quite turned around.  
“Here we are then. Alex has the room next to you, and Chris the room next to him. Just put your suitcase down on the bed for now, the kids will be up momentarily if Katherine has any say in the matter. After dinner there’ll be an hour or so to unpack and settle in, then we’ll play a game or two, then tea and bed. I’ll just show you this room the boys will want to show you the rest themselves. Through here is the bathroom, just a toilet and a sink, shower’s in the other bath. The boys’ playroom- slash- office space through that connecting door, and if we go back, that other door leads to your closet. Look good to you?”  
“Mrs.Newport,” James began, not sure if she would let him continue, “why are you doing all this for me? This is really nice, but isn’t there a couch that I could sleep on? I would be alright with that.”  
“Oh now aren’t you that sweetest thing. Call me Mel, everyone does. Now, give me a hug. Why on earth would I have a guest sleep on the couch when the entire second floor is filled with guest rooms?” She said gently, “Elise and I thought that you would be more comfortable up here, close to the twins. Is that okay?”  
James blinked back tears as the simple warmth of the hug started to relax the tension that had filled him ever since the boys had bounced into his room two weeks ago. After a moment, he started to pull away, and Mel released him, not restraining him in any way.  
“Thank you,” he said quietly, looking into her tear filled eyes. “Thank you so much.”  
“You are more than welcome, James. More than welcome.” Mel wiped her tears away quickly and said, “I think the boys are on their way up, so I’m going to head out now. Is that alright?”   
James nodded quietly and sat down on the bed.  
“Okay sweetie. Dinner's at six-thirty in the kitchen. I’ll see you then.” And with that she was gone, sweeping out the door like a gale force wind. James blinked, glad that he had been sitting down, because all the energy in the room seemed to have followed her.   
Out in the hall, Mel ran into her boys, who had been racing up the stairs, judging by their breathlessness.   
“Mama!” Chris said, as loudly as he has ever spoken, and jumped into her arms. He also folded into her hug and sighed a little.  
“Where’s. . .James” Alex panted, desperately trying to regain his breath, “pasta . . . done.”  
Melissa smiled and released Chris, replying easily, “James is in his room, give him a moment to adjust. Thank you for letting me know about the pasta, be down for supper at six thirty or else. And boys?”  
“Yeah?”  
“Try not to break him.”

 

Taking James on a tour was by far the easiest part of that day, as he didn’t ask for much explanation. He did pause after being shown the third floor to ask how many people there were in the family.   
“Well.” Alex began, “Theres-”  
“No. I’ll explain,” Chris interrupted, earning him a glare from his twin, “me and Alex are the oldest, and the only boys. We have three sisters; Brianna and Dianne are the next oldest, and another pair of twins, Then there’s our littlest sister Katherine. You’ve met one of our mums, Melissa, and our other mum’s name is Elise.”  
James stood stock still and stared at Chris for a good long moment.  
“What?” Chris asked defensively, “What is it?”  
“I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say in one go.” James said teasingly.  
Chris huffed a laugh and grinned. “At school Alex talks enough for the both of us.”  
“Oi! I resemble that remark!”  
James and Chris grinned at each other. Alex tried to look offended, but wound up grinning anyway. “So,” Alex stated, “Stairs or elevator?”  
Chris looked at his watch and raised an eyebrow at Alex. “Elevator it is then,” Alex responded, turning to press the button.  
“Wait,” James said, thinking, “ Didn’t your mum take the elevator back down? Won’t it take a while to call the elevator back?”  
Chris nodded, then grinned. “Race you down to the main floor!” Then he took off down the left side of the stairs laughing as Alex cried out protests about cheating. They tumbled down the first flight in a gale of laughter, the twins neck-and-neck as they raced down the first flight. As the twins barreled down in front of him, James had a brainwave, and leapt onto the curving banister. As the twins slid on the slippery marble, he managed to overtake them by virtue of gravity and a well- polished rail.  
“Hey! No fair!” Shouted Alex as James shot past them. In retaliation he also leapt on the rail behind James and shot down like a misguided missile. James reached the end of the rail and spun around to gloat at the boys.  
“Look out!”  
Crash!  
For the second time that day, James found himself pinned under Alex, staring into his eyes. For a brief moment, it seemed impossible to breathe. Then it was as if a great weight was lifted from his chest- no, that was Chris pulling Alex off of him again. the breathless feeling lasted throughout the tour of the main floor however, and had barely dissipated by the time they reached the kitchen. The kitchen was easily twice the size of the main hall, and had a cheery colour scheme of brown wood, yellow lights, and a particular shade of blue-green that seemed very fifties. There was a bar running down the length of the room, offset slightly, giving it the feel of two separate rooms. The right side as dominated by a massive table that was a honey brown colour, already set with plates and food. A delicious smell of cheese and garlic bread rose from the food in the center of the table.   
“Just in time, boys. Give your sisters a hug and wash up quick.”  
The three boys leapt to follow her command before sitting down. Just as everyone was about to dig in, Melissa cleared her throat. Everything instantly stopped as they waited.  
“Now, before we dig in and forget, why don’t we introduce ourselves? My name’s Melissa and, as you can probably tell, I’m in charge of this bunch of hooligans.”  
“Mom!” Four voices cried at once. Melissa smiled and looked to the girls on her left. Curiously, the second pair of twins looked nothing like the first. Where Mel and the boys has wide faces and open expressions, these two had narrow features and a certain off-putting air of mystery. Their hair was black and curly, almost reaching down to the middle of their backs, and their eyes were the same shade of dark blue as Elise’s. These two clearly took after Elise, not Melissa.  
“I’m Bri, it’s nice to meet you.” Said the one with her hair in a ponytail.  
“Her name’s actually Brianna, but do call her Bri. I’m Dianne, But call me Di.” Continued the other sister, who had her hair down long. James looked at the chair across from him, which had been occupied a few moments ago, and found it empty.   
“Ahem” a small sound came from beside his chair. He jumped a little and turned to look.  
“I’m Katherine, and I’m ten. My family calls me Katie-cat and I guess it would be okay if you did too, ‘cause you’re basically family right? When do you think you and Alex are gonna-”  
“That’s enough, Katie.”  
“But Mummy. . .” Katie whined.  
“Back to your seat, little one.”  
Both James and Alex had turned a painful shade of red while Katherine had been talking. Melissa raised an eyebrow as her youngest sulked her way around the table. “Thank you mon cherie, do continue.” She gestured at the food on the table. “The food is getting cold.”  
Elise smiled at Melissa in a way that spoke of years of love and a life well lived, and promised many more to come. It was a look that James’ parents had never shared, not even when they were first married. He had seen pictures. They were never this happy, especially after they blamed each other for his- a hand on his shoulder shook him out of his reverie. He turned and almost lost himself again in a pair of grey-green eyes that held a look of concern for him and, as always, a smile tucked away in the depths. Alex held the universe in his eyes, it seemed. The lights glinted off the gold highlights in his hair, making it look like the sun was setting behind him.  
“. . . James?”  
Damn. He’d been lost in his thoughts and staring at Alex. “Sorry, what was that?”  
Alex grinned “Could you introduce yourself for the benefit of the ladies?” He asked, a light blush fading from his cheeks.   
“Oh! Sorry, I’m James. I’m a friend of A- the twins. From boarding school.”  
For whatever reason, everyone at the table but him and Alex found this hilarious, judging by the grins they tried to hide.   
The rest of the meal was a boisterous affair, both parents teasing their kids, and the kids teasing back. James refrained from voicing the sarcastic little comments the bubbled up, and simply enjoyed the food and company. Melissa had made macaroni and cheese with herbed bread crumbs, and there was salad and garlic bread on the side. After dinner was done with they all sat back with a sigh. Elise pushed back her chair and started collecting dishes as she walked around the table. As she passed her wife, they shared a quick kiss.   
“Ewww, Mom!” Alex said with a teasing grin.  
“I think it’s sweet.”James quietly stated.  
“He talks!” Melissa teased, “we thought you had already fallen asleep! Speaking of which, you all have an hour to unpack and settle in a bit. Meet in the library for game time at eight. Not you Katie-cat, help your mother with the dishes while I put the food away.” She shooed the other kids off with a smile.

 

“Chris?”  
Chris looked over at his twin as they set up their bathroom, moving around each other easily as they put things away. “Yeah?”  
“Do you like James?”  
“He’s cool. A good friend. I’m straight remember?”  
“Oh.”  
“Why? Do you like him?”  
“Nah,” responded Alex, a little too casually.   
Chris rolled his eyes at his twin.  
“I . . .” Alex looked guilty, “ . . . Maybe a little?” His voice cracked on the last word. He cleared his throat “It’s nothing, I swear.”  
Chris nodded and went back to putting his stuff away. Within two minutes they were done and in their rooms unpacking. James crossed the hall into Alex’s room and sat down on the bed, heaving out a big sigh and lying back. After the near-sleepless night he’d had from nerves the night before, all he wanted to do was sleep, but there was still the ‘games time’ that he had to be awake for. He heaved himself upright and sighed again.   
“Dude? You good?” Alex asked  
“Hmmm? Oh. Yeah, just a little tired.”  
Alex nodded and gestured at whatever he was holding. “I’m going to change into my pjs, ‘cause games time is pajamas time. It’s cool if you don’t want to, but everyone else will be be in their pjs.”  
“Hm. I don’t know about wearing pajamas to a family gathering, but I will go put on some sweats and a t-shirt.”  
“Perfect.”Alex said, turning around and stripping off his shirt. “Dude?”  
“Uh?” James managed, transfixed by his friend.  
“Are you going to go?”  
“Oh. Yeah.” Damn, damn, damn. He’d done it again. Staring at his crush like a lovesick fool. He collected his scattered dignity and made for the exit. Alex watched him go with a conflicted expression on his face.  
The ride down in the elevator was cramped and awkward, James and Alex pointedly trying not to stare at each other as the other teenagers traded smirks over Katie’s head. Alex wound up staring at James anyway, stuck in memories of that morning. Chris had to elbow him several times during the ride, and the girls were hiding grins as they opened the library door the library was two stories high, with bookshelves lining the walls and across the middle of the floor. There was a semicircle of chairs that looked overstuffed and comfy, and a couch that Melissa and Elise were sitting on. The other kids went straight for a table that held tea and desserts.  
"James dear, why don't you grab some tea and choose something for us to play?"  
James blinked, trying to understand everything through his haze of exhaustion. Then Alex pulled him to the table and piled a plate with at least five kinds of dessert before pouring him some tea. James regained enough thought process to fix up his tea before he was pulled over to the games shelf by Dianne and told to “Pick something quick, or Mama’s going to fall asleep!” He looked over at Melissa, who seemed more in danger of laughing to death than anything else, and back at the games shelf. It was full to overflowing with every sort of game known to man, and the choice was up to him. He almost sighed in relief when he spotted a puzzle that would give him some time without to much socializing with this crazy family. Extracting it was more complicated than he had thought, but when he finally placed it on the table Elise did a fist pump and Melissa covered a smile with a sigh. “Alright, everyone down on the floor. James, dump out the pieces and we’ll get started.”   
The rest of the evening was spent in a haze of tea and teasing. After about ten minutes James recovered enough to start giving as good as he got when the boys started needling him about his accent.  
“Yeah, you’re right, Americans do talk the right way. Of course it isn’t pronounced aluminium even though it’s spelled that way. Sure.”  
“Hey-”  
“And obviously you Yanks drive on the right side. And clearly your government is run perfectly. And your country is soooo great. And-”  
Alex shoved him over and he collapsed in a heap of laughter. He lay there for a few seconds as he tried to get his breath back. A pair of grey green eyes popped into view as he was about to get up.  
“Dude? Are you alright?”  
“Yup.” He pushed himself up and grinned at Alex. “I haven’t had this much fun since the fall formal. Remember?”  
“Shut up! We promised never to speak of that again.”  
“Wait, what happened?” Bri asked  
“Well, it goes like this-”  
“Maaaaaa, make him stop!”  
“No, I don’t think so, I want to hear this too. And don’t whine dear, It’s not very nice.” Alex blushed.  
“Anyway, it goes like this: two weeks to the formal some girl in the girls side of the dorm burns some popcorn. I mean like, it lights on fire. So the whole dorm has to evacuate because of this one girl. The fire alarms are going off and there’s pandemonium in the halls. After about a minute the sprinklers go off everywhere but the main floor, but almost everyone is already outside. Except this one girl named Liss, who had the dorm furthest from the stairs and was not exactly thinking clearly. She got out of the stairs at the second floor before she realized her mistake and turned around. So she was soaked to the skin and outside on a rather cold fall evening. Thats when this guy” He poked Alex in the shoulder “walks up. he sees her shivering and asks if she wants his shirt. Liss is stunned that the ‘great Alex’ from the football team is offering her his shirt and nods a little dumbly. So he just takes off his shirt and has me and Chris form a protective wall as she changes. By the end, he’s standing there shirtless, she has stars in her eyes and Chris and I are trying really hard not to fall down laughing. Fast forward a couple weeks to the formal. Everyone is dressed up very nicely and the girls are all trying to catch the eye of either twin when Liss walks up and starts going on at Alex about not picking her up before the dance. Alex gets this lost puppy look about him and starts backing away. Now, Liss is wearing this really nice yellow dress, floor length, with butterflies embroidered up one side. It’s really quite lovely. Alex, in the face of all this yelling, gets himself backed up against the drinks table with Liss still yelling at him. Now, whoever was in charge of the electrical had left this one cable running across the front of the drinks to power some of the fairy lights. Liss, who was also wearing a pair of the highest heels I have ever seen, trips over this cable and starts falling toward Alex, who had been sliding along the side of the drink table and was now directly in front of the cranberry punch. Instead of catching her like a normal person, he dodges to the side like he’s avoiding a tackle. Liss goes down right in the middle of the punch and knocks half the table onto the floor. Her dress is soaked and she managed to twist her ankle on the way down. Alex and Chris both take off like the hounds of hell are after them and I’m left to help her limp to the bathroom. The teachers let us use the handicapped washroom to help her clean up and she babbles at me the whole time about how I’m ‘ the greatest gay friend a girl could ask for’, and on and on before I finally get her to go the her room and sleep off some of the excitement.”  
Everyone but Alex were killing themselves laughing, while Alex turned bright red and stared at James like he had never seen him before. “You’re gay?”  
“Alex!” Elise looked faintly shocked, “What a thing to say!”  
“Yes, I am.” James blushed “Is that okay?” He tried not to fall into the panic attack that threatened. After his parents-  
“Okay? Honey, if he has two moms how could it not be?” Melissa said calmly. James started to feel the edges of the panic closing in as he remembered the argument that resulted in being sent to boarding school halfway around the world. His dad had been so angry, and his mom had started drinking again and...  
“James?” He looked up at Alex, who was still blushing a little. “Are you doing alright?”  
“Yes, I’m fine.” He cleared his throat, “Shall we continue?”  
The rest of the evening was a warm glow of firelight and welcome, ending just as nine-thirty rolled around and Melissa and Elise packed everyone off to bed. James stumbled into his bedroom in a complete fog of exhaustion and confusion, and was asleep almost as soon as his head touched the pillow. 

 

“Um” Alex looked over at his brother with a slight wince “HeyIjustthinkthatyoushouldtalktoJamesabouthisreactiontomeaskingifhewasgayokay?” he said in a big rush. Chris raised a single eyebrow and kept brushing his teeth. “Ugh, I know I’m being an idiot, but what else could I have said?” Chris looked at him. “I- you’re right, anything but that. Or nothing! Nothing would have been fine! I just can’t seem to control my mouth around him.” Chris rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom. “But you know me, I have no filter! So could you? Talk to him about it, I mean. You’re very good at that kind of talk, you just let the other person say everything.”  
“You should try it some time. Now what was I talking to James about?”  
“He almost had a panic attack when I asked him if he was gay. I just want to know if he’s alright.”  
“Then you should talk to him. He might react better if you told him you were gay too.”  
“You mean he thinks I’m straight? How? Why?”  
“The whole school thinks you’re straight. You play football and flirt with girls a lot. Can you blame them?”  
“I don’t flirt, I talk to them like they’re real people. It’s not that hard.”  
“To some, treating girls like human beings is flirting. Don’t ask me, I don’t even talk to them.”  
“Huh. I’ll do it tomorrow I guess, goodnight.”  
“Goodnight.” Chris walked back through the connecting bathroom, pausing to switch off the lights and shut the door. He got into bed and thought to himself, this should be fun.

**Author's Note:**

> Susan! I'm sorry I took so long. Chapter 2 is in the works I promise! <3  
> Please be kind, this is my first fiction work.


End file.
